Nearly out of jail

The news that Jonathan Aitken is to help Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice is to be welcomed by anyone with a sense on how to do grown up politics. Using a convicted ex-cabinet minister's experiences in jail to inform on how to transform the lives of the prison population, in the hope that the re-offending rate can be reduced, is surely wise.

Unfortunately, there are already calls for David Cameron to distance himself from this decision, and some MPs are trying drag up the old 90's memories of Tory sleaze. I hope DC knows that the Tory party of today is seen as different to the late 90's and is not scared into running away from the great work the Centre for Social Justice has done.

I really wish all politicians could see further than the next week's headlines and work out ways to tackle the long term problems which are neatly swept under the carpet.

Squiffy.